How does the condition of a people change?

In the second part of the cycle “Towards a sociology of prophecy”, Rudian Zekthi develops the central thesis that gives the cycle its second title: how does the condition of a people change? Starting from the premise set out in the first part — that society is an “empty vessel” made up of groups competing to impose meaning on it — Zekthi moves to the practical question: what is the concrete mechanism of change?

Zekthi rejects two mistaken understandings of it: the romantic, nationalist idea that a people is “superior” or “better than other peoples”, and the elitist idea that change arrives from above and from outside. In their place he sets out the prophetic thesis: change happens when a group arises within a people carrying a strong premise — an idea, a thesis, a message — and begins to persuade the others of it. That group need not be large; prophetic history shows that small groups with deep conviction can change the whole course of a people.

At the end, Zekthi applies the frame to the concrete Albanian context, to Albanian Muslims in Albania and in Kosovo, and argues that responsibility for change can be entrusted neither to national romanticism nor to expectations of help from outside. Change comes only if Albanian Muslims form the group that carries a clear prophetic thesis and begins to put it into words in the public space.

Some of the points covered: 📌 From “society as a vessel” to the practical question: how does a people change? 📌 A critique of the romantic, nationalist idea of a people's superiority 📌 A critique of the elitist idea that change comes from outside 📌 The prophetic thesis: the group carrying the premise as the mechanism of change 📌 The prophetic histories as evidence of the power of small groups 📌 Applying it to Albanian Muslims in Albania and in Kosovo 📌 The responsibility to look at ourselves again, and to form the group

📍 Prishtina Talks